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Today's SPL. All of our dirty dozen are in action. Here's a very quick look ahead.
St Mirren v Celtic
Ah, St Mirren. 2-1 up last week with their opponents down to ten men. They lost 5-2.
A season in 90 minutes. The promise, the impressive moments, the entertainment and the frequent
disappointments.
Did your Cup overfloweth last week?
Not so much. Or if it did is was with lukewarm, overly milky tea rather than with an expensive Asti
Spumante.
Back to the slog of the SPL today though. What joys await...
St Johnstone v Rangers
Poor timing.
That was Ally McCoist's verdict on his bid for St Johnstone's Francisco Sandaza on the eve of
today's game.
The SPL works off the turkey and mince pies with a full Wednesday evening fixture. The eyes of the
world upon us once more. Or at least the eyes of those Sky viewers not tempted by the tungsten
superheroes at the Ally Pally.
Celtic v Rangers
Apparently recent form has left some Celtic supporters confident about this one.
In the run up to Christmas the Scottish Football Blog is taking a daily look at the season so
far for the 12 SPL clubs.
And what they might hope to find in their stockings.
Alphabetically at least Aberdeen are number one.
Woe seems to hang over Pittodrie like a particularly clingy North Sea haar at the moment.
It seems like ages since I tickled the malnourished belly of the SPL with a wildly inaccurate
prediction post.
I think the last time I Nostradamus-ed the weekend action Rangers had won the title and Motherwell
were about to take the Champion's League by storm.
What a difference an eight point swing makes.
Four games in the SPL today.
But I'm distracted by Sir Alex Ferguson's upcoming 25th anniversary as manager of Manchester
United. A phenomena. From Govan.
The SPL didn't even exist 25 years ago. We must have had football though, whatever they try and
tell us.
Must have had it because I'm sure Alex Ferguson left a top flight Scottish club to take over a top
flight English club 25 years ago.
Six SPL games on a Saturday afternoon? A fixture list that makes me feel dizzy. The past is an
unfamiliar place and all that.
A full house. A lunchtime kick off in Ayrshire is the only nod to modernity, the joker in the pack
reminding us that we're so totally not, like, living in the last century or something.
What times to be a Hibs supporter.
Bottom of the league, a manager who has become a toxic brand, sections of the support ever more
alienated from the vision the board have for the club. And sections of the support who are
consistently voting with their feet.
A demonstration is planned before today's game with second bottom Aberdeen.
The whirligig that is international week has left me struggling for time as we approach the mundane
predictability of the SPL.
So this week's SPL preview has been drawn entirely at random.
Not by me.
I've shipped in a glamorous assistant, a glamorous assistant who is the number one draw every
Wednesday night at a "gentleman's club" cabaret in Newcastle.
Apparently Alex Salmond's Scottish Government have rushed through emergency legislation declaring
that every football article written must include reference to Scottish football's darkest hour.
So be it.
Scotland manager Craig Levein assured us yesterday that the Scottish game would bounce back from
the trials of Thursday night.
After the party, the hangover. The fear. The self loathing.
Rangers thought they'd pulled the good looking girl only to see her disappear into the bedroom with
a handsome stranger.
Celtic were ignored most of the night, left to stand in the kitchen nursing a lukewarm can of Skol.
Chelsea and Sunderland march proudly over the border to ensure that Rangers and Hibs are otherwise
occupied as this stuttering SPL start continues.
Rangers are out of the Champions League, a result that also marked Madjid Bougherra's last game for
the club.
Hearts lost Jim Jefferies, gained Paulo Sergio, gambolled through their European tie and landed a
Europa League play-off with the Hotspurs of Tottenham.
Another week of SPL fixtures with the sun still not set on July. An abbreviated card today and an
abbreviated run through from me as babysitting duties call.
St Johnstone v RangersAfter the drama of this week's bout of Goodwillie hunting and the unfortunate
reverse against Malmo Rangers get back to league business.
The GameDunfermline make their SPL return with the TV cameras in attendance for the unveiling of
last season's championship flag.
I can't truthfully make a prediction without admitting that the game has already started. It's 0-0
right now.
I'll back - despite the evidence of the opening stages - both teams to score and take a point each.
The second of today's two opening Sunday fixtures and look at what's going on with Dundee United
and Kilmarnock.
The GameLet's quickly gloss over any jokes about how much the early start to the SPL helped Dundee
United's European campaign.
After starting with a flurry on Thursday they eventually slipped out of the competition by the
narrowest of margins.
The first of Sunday's two SPL games as Celtic travel to Hibs to give a green tinge to the opening
weekend.
The GameFor a variety of reasons, some of which are explored below, this is an away win for me. End
of.*
HibsWell, what a swell summer it's been for Hibs. Managerial uncertainty has swirled, training
ground punches have been hurled and transfer deals have unfurled.
Completing the triangle of opening Saturday fixtures, Stuart McCall's Motherwell host Terry
Butcher's Inverness.
The gameTerry Butcher says his team aren't ready. Brutal honesty or bluffing banditry? We'll find
out soon enough.
Motherwell lost a Scottish Cup final in their last competitive appearance.
The second of Saturday's three games and a look at what's in store for Aberdeen and St
Johnstone.
The game
I've a feeling both these sides will have been quite happy with the opening day's fixtures. A home
game for Aberdeen and an away trip that won't overly scare St Johnstone.
Opening games often have a tentative, feet finding atmosphere and this one seems set up to be
exactly that.
The first of this weekend's six preview posts, starting with the first game - Rangers v Hearts.
Quite a match to kick things off.
The game
Championship flag a-flappin' in the Govan breeze Rangers have the perfect chance to dismiss as
exaggerations any rumours of their footballing demise.
Part one of an entirely prejudiced, unscientific look at 12 players I'll be keeping track of in the
SPL this season. Maybe not the biggest stars but a player from each team whose progress I'm
interested to follow.
Steven Naismith, Rangers
Steven Naismith turns 25 this September. No longer a kid bursting with potential but a senior
member of a championship winning squad with a five year contract under his belt.
So a desperate season comes down to this.
It is, after all, just football. A game where championships can still turn on the final day, a game
where the drama should be confined to the pitch.
Today has already been dubbed Helicopter Sunday.
It says much for the bankruptcy of the SPL's ideas departments that they think using a six year old
marketing device will still engender excitment.
The starter before the main course. The stale garlic bread with mouldy mozzarella before the Old
Firm's Wagyu steak.
The bottom six chunter out of view with everything decided and nowt left to play for. Inverness are
safe in seventh - and how we thank the split for making seventh place such an aspirational target -
and Hamilton are doon.
Third place was eventually delivered to Hearts in the least stressful way.
Dundee United's defeat to Rangers last night gave Hearts the league spot - and the European
qualification - that they have deserved.
Things might have fizzled out of late but Hearts gave us one the major narratives, one of the major
positive narratives, of the season.
The picture of Neil Lennon booting a bottle of water during Celtic's defeat to Inverness spoke
volumes.
Which of his underperforming players was he metaphorically kicking up the backside?
Was this Celtic's bottle crashing?
Football teams often play badly. They often choose the worst game to show themselves at their
worst.
Aberdeen v St JohnstoneRumours that Aberdeen had buggered off on an early summer holiday proved to
be exaggerated in last week's win over Inverness. A little northern light in a bleak end to the
season.
And St Johnstone scored at Easter Road. Not once but twice. In a win. Winning football games is
relatively simple when you score more than the opposition.
A good week for Rangers. A good week indeed.
Back in the driving seat in the SPL after Celtic's defeat to Inverness in midweek.
And now a takeover.
A takeover! Finally an end to the most complicated, drawn out transaction since Ivana Trump
demanded joint custody of Donald's hair in their divorce settlement.
The SPL season heads inexorably towards its conclusion. Did last Sunday decide the destination of
the title?
Perhaps.
Perhaps not.
All Rangers can do is keep winning, keep hoping and wait for Celtic to slip up. Not much else for
it.
Celtic, of course, need to avoid slipping up.
A bit like taking to the stage at the Sands Casino an hour after Frank Sinatra and the rest of the
Rat Pack have taken their leave.
Sunday games aren't always that popular at Easter Road. A bottom six clash against the second
bottom team, served up after a televised Old Firm game, on the back of a defeat to the team at the
bottom of the league has all the appeal of regurgitated Easter eggs.
Old Firm matchday number seven. Rangers v Celtic. Old friends never get tired of meeting up.
By any footballing standards today's Easter clash provides drama enough. To the winner, it looks,
goes the league title and a tilt at the Champions League.
Sadly Scotland in 2011 relies not on footballing drama alone.
Rangers fit in their first, and only, trundle to Tannadice of this much chopped and changed season
just before the SPL-it.
Making hay while the sun shone on Celtic at Hampden, Rangers went top on Saturday with a 2-1 win
over St Mirren. They can extend that lead to four points this evening, although Celtic will have
two games in hand.
The SPL scoots from the east end of Glasgow to Paisley when the Old Firm is done and dusted. How
the other half live.
How the other have live.
Eleventh versus twelfth in the SPL sounds like a relegation clash and both teams will be treating
it as such.
In the last few weeks though I think the fear of the drop has been lifted from these two sides.
I like custard. When I know I'm going to be having custard I am happy. I look forward to my custard
experience.
And then the custard arrives. And it's lumpy. This disappoints me.
Too often in the past Old Firm games have been like lumpy custard. You look forward to the big
event and then you are treated to a dish about as appetising as cat vomit.
Old Firm match day four and the stakes are high for Rangers. Time, then, for a Rangers eye view of
tomorrow's events.
And it's a pleasure to welcome Scott Johnson of The Footy Blog - recently voted Scotland's top
football blog (ahem!) - to give us his blue take on how the match might develop.
The fourth Old Firm game of the season is almost upon us. And what a season defining game it could
be.
In the first of the Scottish Football Blog's three part preview I'm pleased to welcome Michael Gunn
from TicTacTic - described by The Guardian as "an excellent tactical analysis overview site of
Celtic" - to give us the hooped view.
My predictions were made early this week to allow them to feature on The Commentary Box radio show
on Monday (available for download now.)
Last Sunday evening I saw the results going this way:
Aberdeen v Kilmarnock: 2-2
Hearts v Dundee United: 2-0
Inverness v St Johnstone: 1-2
Motherwell v Hamilton: 0-0
Has anything changed?
As my long suffering regular reader is aware (hello mum!), the Scottish Football Blog does not
excel at the results forecasting game.
So it was with a certain trepidation that I agreed to send in my guest predictions for "Coupon
Corner" on The Commentary Box.
It was good to get a chance to help the guys out though.
What a week, what a seismic week.
Scotland dismantled a side ranked above them in the world rankings. Destroyed them with a goal
blitz.
Who cares that the FIFA rankings are essentially meaningless or that Northern Ireland were just not
very good?
Actually there was a lot to be positive about after Scotland's 3-0 win in Dublin.
Last night's SPL results had ramifications for the teams battling it out at both ends of the
table.
St Johnstone's 2-0 win over Hamilton means Hibs remain second bottom as they host third bottom St
Mirren. Tonight's result at Easter Road could have a big, big influence on how the relegation
battle eventually pans out.
Hope everyone is recovering from the disgustingly addictive drug that is transfer deadline day.
I'm just about over the disappointment that neither Chelsea or Liverpool thought I was worth a
punt. The agent is being sacked today.
Taking slightly longer to recover from the news that Hibs have signed a striker.
Dundee United v HibsA Sunday kick off allows me to use today's match preview to sneak in what is
now becoming a far too regular rant about the many deficiencies that currently haunt Hibs.
This one is slightly different though. It's the "sticking up for Colin Calderwood and finding hope
for the future" post.
